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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Geosciences : Geography

Undergraduate Course: Global Hydrology (GEGR10146)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Geosciences CollegeCollege of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course explores the key concepts, methods, and challenges in understanding and managing water resources and hydrological extremes at a global scale.
Course description This course provides a foundation in the key hydro-climatological processes that drive the global hydrological cycle, enabling students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between the atmosphere, land surface, and oceans that control terrestrial freshwater availability. Through a combination of theoretical lectures and practical exercises, students will gain proficiency in analysing and interpreting hydro-climatological data, assessing water availability, and evaluating the impacts of climate change and human activities on the hydrological cycle. Additionally, the course will explore innovative approaches and technologies for monitoring, modelling, and managing hydrological extremes, with a focus on global perspectives and interdisciplinary solutions. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities needed to address complex water-related challenges in a changing world.

Lecture Programme:

Week 1: Hydrology as a Science
- Motivation
- Key problems and challenges in hydrological sciences
- Fundamental concepts

Week 2: Streamflow Analysis
- Hydrograph separation
- Unit hydrograph
- Flow duration curve

Week 3: Flooding
- Flood risk
- Addressing nonstationarity
- Flood forecasting

Week 4: Groundwater
- Importance of groundwater
- Modelling groundwater flow
- Measuring groundwater storage

Week 5: Precipitation
- Global precipitation dynamics
- Modes of precipitation and their significance to hydrological systems
- Interception and surface storage
- Climate change and precipitation, current challenges and emerging trends
- Measuring precipitation with remote and in situ methods

Week 6: Evaporation
- Controls on the rate of evaporation
- Climate and land use impacts
- Measuring and modelling evaporation

Week 7: Soil Moisture and Infiltration
- Soil hydraulic properties
- Soil water storage capacity
- Controls on infiltration rate

Week 8: Runoff and Channel Flow
- Controls on runoff generation
- Surface and subsurface runoff
- Measuring streamflow

Week 9: Water Resources Management
- Quantifying water demand
- Modelling water management activities
- Coupled human-water systems

Week 10: Hydrology in a Changing World
- Climate change
- Land use change


Practical Programme:

Week 1: Catchment Delineation and Water Balance Calculation
- Introduce some key tools in Python for hydrological analysis, based around an exercise to calculate the catchment water balance at monthly and annual timescales.

Week 2: Streamflow Analysis
- Retrieve daily streamflow timeseries from NRFA using nrfapy. Plot the unit hydrograph and flow duration curves.

Week 3: Flood Identification and Trends
- Using daily streamflow data from NRFA (Week 6), identify floods using different methods.
- Fit trends to identify nonstationary flood hazards, and visualize results.

Week 4: Baseflow and Stormflow
- Separate baseflow and streamflow and compare values for different geologies.
- Study trends in baseflow. Consider importance of baseflow to flood generation processes by fitting statistical/ML model.

Week 5: Global Change and Precipitation
- Study changing global precipitation patterns due to climate change and climate variability.
- Comparison of gauged and gridded (satellite, modelled) precipitation data products.

Week 6: Global Evaporation
- Use metpy to calculate global potential evaporation.
- Comparison of various methods to calculate potential evaporation.
- Consider the evaporative fraction and how it is changing.

Week 7: Runoff Generation
- Explore runoff generation processes by developing a simple model of soil infiltration.

Week 8: The Role of Water Management
- Study ISIMIP model outputs to identify the impact of water management on the water cycle.

Week 9: Future Change
- Study ISIMIP model outputs to consider projections of future trends.
- Consider how to quantify uncertainty.

Week 10 & 11: Drop-In Session
- A session to resolve any outstanding problems or queries regarding the practical sessions.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements Students must have some familiarity with Python before taking this course.

This course is open to 3rd and 4th year students. This course is open to all university students, but priority will be given to students on the Geography Degree Programmes. Students from other programmes may be able to join if there is space. Please contact geoset.ug.drummond@ed.ac.uk to check availability.
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  38
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 22, Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 22, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 152 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Visualization Exercise (30%) :
Use Python to create a figure from a supplied dataset that illustrates how Scotland's hydrology has changed in recent decades.

Hydrological Data Analysis (70%):
A short research analysis presented as a Jupyter notebook on a chosen topic.

Students must attain an overall mark of 40% (or above) in order to pass the course.
Feedback Feedback will be provided from lecturer and demonstrators during practical sessions and during class discussions.
Written feedback will be provided for assessed coursework.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Describe the key hydro-climatological processes that govern terrestrial water availability, and how they can be quantified.
  2. Explain how environmental change may affect the global hydrological cycle in terms of the underlying physical processes.
  3. Contrast the various types and sources of hydrological data, and defend the use of specific data sources in particular contexts.
  4. Develop an original research question related to large-scale hydrological change.
  5. Formulate a data analysis workflow in Python to answer a research question, and visualize scientific results.
Reading List
Robinson, M. and Ward, R. (2017) Hydrology: Principles and processes. IWA Publishing.

Davie, T. and Quinn, N. W. (2019) Fundamentals of Hydrology (3rd Edition). Routledge.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills 1. Theoretical understanding of global hydrological cycle.
2. Ability to analyse environmental data to answer scientific questions about the terrestrial water cycle.
3. Ability to communicate scientific results in a visually engaging way.
4. Foundation in Python for data analysis.
5. Ability to use online resources to solve programming tasks.
Special Arrangements This course is open to 3rd and 4th year students. This course is open to all university students, but priority will be given to students on the Geography Degree Programmes. Students from other programmes may be able to join if there is space. Please contact geoset.ug.drummond@ed.ac.uk to check availability.
KeywordsHydrology,Global Change
Contacts
Course organiserDr Simon Moulds
Tel:
Email: Simon.Moulds@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Leigh Corstorphine
Tel: (0131 6)50 9847
Email: lcorstor@ed.ac.uk
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